I will post when they arrive. I now have a few friends who want to try their hand at beekeeping and they are invited to be on hand to welcome the new Queens home.

In the meantime, My husband is now more involved in the bees.

He went to pick up a hive of Italians graciously made available by our bee club president and mentor, to keep the yard in pollinators as our citrus , plum, blackberries and blueberries are already blooming!

My husband named this one Luna Bella Mattina.

My Husband also attended Our local Bee Club meeting last night and got very fired up about the possibilities of catching a wild swarm! That would be wonderful indeed! Our club as grown alot over the last few years and we both love it. Check out the website at http://sealabees.org

Well, I spoke too soon. the bees made it over the winter up until a few weeks ago.. it was warm and they were buzzing.. then we got a hard freeze and they did not survive it. Should I have covered them?? fed.. them ?? yes.. However.. I did less feeding this year because I did not want too invite other bees in to robb them as happened last year. when I was a messy meddling overfeeding sloppy beekeeper. Well, I could have done much better this year than I did.. sadly.. I failed, and therefore, so did my bees. What can I do but learn from it? and Go on trying.

"Bee venom contains a potent toxin called melittin that can poke holes in the protective envelope that surrounds HIV, and other viruses. Large amounts of free melittin can cause a lot of damage. Indeed, in addition to anti-viral therapy, the paper’s senior author, Samuel A. Wickline, MD, the J. Russell Hornsby Professor of Biomedical Sciences, has shown melittin-loaded nanoparticles to be effective in killing tumor cells."